Logic Puzzles

FINALLY!! I have been meaning to make this post for months now but haven’t had the time to type up my puzzles.

I.Love.Logic.Puzzles.

I’ve been addicted to them since I was in middle school. There is something so wonderfully satisfying about unlocking the key to the puzzle that has had you stumped for the last 20 minutes and, with a flurry of your pencil, filling the entire rest of the chart with X’s and O’s! I love it. I have a book of logic puzzles in Spanish that my school ordered through Teacher’s Discovery, and it is good but the vocabulary is just much too broad for my students. I wanted to have logic puzzles that allow my students to practice the vocabulary that we are targeting in class so that they can get repetitions from a very different, mentally stimulating activity. Logic puzzles are an AWESOME way to get reading repetitions of target structures because you have to read through the clues so many times while trying to complete them! They are also great because they provide the mental stimulation for highly gifted students that get bored with simple retells. I’ll be posting puzzles on TpT as I create them. Here is one that practices colors and the verbs lleva, tiene, and le gusta (click on the image to download it in Spanish or click here to download it in French, translated by Karima Mann):

If anyone is interested in having translations of the puzzles, I’d love to work with you to translate them into your language of instruction!!

Hi Diane,
To create the puzzles, I use the (English) puzzle books that I’ve amassed over the years. I change all of the information but follow the pattern of the clues. For example, if a clue is “Daniel or Bob works in Kentucky” my clue might be “José o Benito vive con su mamá”. I use the puzzles primarily as either extra activities or sub activities, and I always use them at the end of class because there is such a difference in how long it takes kids to complete them. That way, kids can finish them at home at their own pace. It is independent work, so there is no talking during the activity. Another way that I like to use them is in my extra time folders, which are laminated folders that kids can grab and work on at their leisure when they are done with whatever assignment they are supposed to be working on but need to wait for classmates to finish before we move on. You can search “extra time folders” and my post about them should pop up. Hope that helps–let me know what follow-up questions you have!

Please make more of these! I have been looking all over for logic grid puzzles in Spanish but having a really hard time finding anything that’s not meant for a kiddie classroom. I’m interested in adult-level logic puzzles in whatever non-English languages I can find, so I was thrilled to find yours – thank you for making it!

Thanks, Martina, for sharing this puzzle. It is a great resource for getting repetitions of target structures while using logical reasoning. I teach French and would love to work with you to translate your puzzles into French.

Reading the comments, I see that there was interest in translating the puzzles in French. If you need help, I would love to participate. If they’ve been already translated, are they available to download somewhere?

I just started reading your blog and it is fabulous! I think the extra time folders will be my summer work project. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this!

This is awesome! Thanks so much for this resource. I am interested in potentially translating this activity into Latin. I know a couple other teachers who are interested in something like this as well.